THE NEW-YORK REVIEW. No. III. JANUARY, 1838. ART.-1. Essay on the Rate of Wages-with an examination of the causes of the Differences in the condition of the Laboring Population throughout the world. By H. C. Carey. Philadelphia, 1835. 2. Address delivered before the General Trades' Union of the City of New York. By Ely Moore. WE shall make no apology for offering to our readers some reflections suggested by the works before us. The condition of those classes of society, usually, but in this country very inaptly denominated the Working classes, presents a subject for profound and anxious consideration. No one whose sympathies are with man rather than with his accidents, who is more concerned about the amount of happiness enjoyed by his fellowcreatures than about their rank, can look with indifference on that which involves emphatically "the greatest happiness of the greatest number." For the Christian to do so, would be flagrant inconsistency. It is the glory of his religion, that its mission is "to the poor." Its promises and encouragements belong especially to those who have not "received their consolation" in this world. While it never ceases to plead with others in their behalf, it at the same time inculcates principles which will enable them most certainly to maintain and advance their own interests. There is an enlightened and comprehensive christian charity on this subject, which we have rejoiced to see displayed of late by several of our most popular writers; and we hope their excellent lessons will not be without a wide and salutary effect upon the popular mind, in counteracting the pernicious teachings of foreign radicals and disorganiz ers. The people of this country, however, are urged to attend to this subject by something which is apt to be more powerful than charity. It is regard to their own safety. They who bring labour rather than capital, to market, are, every where, the majority; and it is with that majority that there has been lodged in this land the nearly absolute controul of all our social and political interests. With us, laws are but emanations of public opinion, and public opinion is little more than the avowed will, for the time being, and however elicited, of a numerical majority. Now, though we abhor the doctrine, that the multitude are essentially depraved and sottish, it by no means follows that we are bound to regard them as infallible, or as beyond the reach of corruption. He must be blind to the light of all history, who does not perceive that the people are usually what their social, political, and religious institutions make them. If their training is in an atmosphere of impurity; if they are looked upon by politicians as mere puppets, to be moved and manœuvred for private ends; if, instead of being purified and exalted by religious faith, they are taught to regard its restraints with indifference or contempt, the result is not doubtful. The retribution, which they will wreak on their betrayers and on themselves, will be as awful as just. It is, to our minds, the darkest and among the most incomprehensible of the omens that threaten our land, that the more opulent and favoured of our people evince so little solicitude on this point. One conces sion after another of political power has been made, until now supremacy is literally with the multitude, and they are invested with a control over life, liberty, and property, which is limited by nothing but their own pleasure, or by paper barriers which they can prostrate at will; and yet, in order to accomplish some unworthy purpose, politicians are ready (and even count it evidence of skill) to inflame their passions almost to madness, and to engender or encourage the most vulgar and virulent prejudices. On the other hand, not a few even in this land of democracy, filled with complacent satisfaction at the view of their possessions, rarely condescend to bestow a thought on the great body of the people, appearing to think, with the ancient Fablier, that "it is fit that noble chevaliers should enjoy all ease and taste all pleasure, while the labourer toils in order that they may be nourished in abundance,-they, and their horses and their dogs." We do not propose to examine this subject, at present, in all its bearings. There is one question about which Republics have always been agitated, and which, to most of them, has proved the too prolific source of dissension and ruin; we mean the distribution of property. Without instituting property, and securing to each one, as far as possible, the fruits of his industry, and foresight, society can make little progress; and yet, in giving that interest, provisions are made which are not only extremely liable to abuse, but which, in the course of ages, become, almost invariably, the instruments of oppression. This is equally the case, whether such provisions emanate from the whole people, or only from the class called proprietors or capitalists. In the latter case, forgetting that their own welfare is bound up with that of the industrious classes, legislators are apt to exonerate themselves from public burdens at the expense of the labourer; and, not only so, but to appropriate the revenue thus collected in such a manner as still further to depress industry. Witness England, which taxes enormously almost every article of subsistence used by the labouring population, and every tenement occupied by a tradesman; while the palace of the nobleman, his carriages, wine, servants, probates, &c. pay comparatively nothing;* collecting millions annually, Sir Henry Parnell estimates that the higher classes do not pay more than six millions out of fifty. Mr. Bulwer, in his" England," &c. (p. 187, vol. 1.) says; "By indisputable calculation it can be shown that every working man is now taxed to the amount of one-third of his weekly wages; supposing the operative is to obtain twelve shillings a week, he is taxed therefore to the amount of four shillings per week; and at the end of six years (the supposed duration of Parliament) he will consequently have contributed to the revenue, from his poor energies, the almost incredible sum of £62 3s." By a calculation in the Metropolitan for July 1833, it is shown that a citizen of London, having an income of £200 a year, out of which he must support himself, wife, three children and a servantmaid, would have to pay above £80 of it to government. The following are specimens of the manner in which the house tax is assessed : In like manner, the window-tax is so adjusted, that the rich, by multiplying the windows on their estates, can obtain them at about one-third the rate of tax paid by the middle and poorer classes. When the number is over 180, the charge is but one and sixpence a piece. Under that number, it is at an average of 5s. a piece. in the form of poor rates, and then dispensing them so as to discourage industry, paralyse independence, and, in effect, pay a bounty on pauperism. On the other hand, let the tenure and distribution of property be regulated by a whole people, and the door is thrown open for a different, but scarcely less grievious kind of oppression. Burke has well said, that "in a republican government, which has a democratic basis, the rich require an additional security above what is necesary to them in monarchies. They are subject to envy; and through envy, to oppression." Such additional security, however, is hardly to be expected from those who feel this envy, and who may hope, by contracting the gains of others, to get profit to themselves. Hence the fact, that in the progress of Republics, property, in order to protect itself, has been so often compelled to appeal from the laws to bribery and corruption. Regulations lessening its sacredness, limiting the extent to which it might accumulate, restricting expenses, partitioning lands, bestowing largesses, have ministered successively to an all-grasping and unscrupulous cupidity, until at last all other sentiments have been absorbed in a general scramble for spoils. Witness Rome in her downward career, when direct and studied appeals were made to the poor against the rich, and the possessions of the latter were held up as fit objects for pillage. "From that time," says the historian, speaking of the Gracchi, "the good old customs and regulations fell gradually into disuse. The people would no longer obey all things were obtained by gold; no crime in war seemed disgraceful if profit was connected with it. Those who were poor and without patrons, had more to fear from the courts of justice than opulent criminals; and assassinations and deaths by poison became common."* Thus does "even-handed justice commend the ingredients of our poisoned chalice to our own lips." The poor begin by preying upon the rich, and end by being their victims. The desire for property, coupled, as it too often is, with a feeble sense of justice, prompts men to try, in the language of Franklin, "to get something for nothing"-to grasp gains without paying the prescribed equivalent of labour and frugality. This single principle will explain much of the invidious and unequal legislation, in regard to property, which has characterized every age and country. Under one government, it leads to guilds, corporations, and trading companies, which are often but little better than stupendous monopolies, engross * Von Müller, Univ. Hist: B. VI. Sec, 19. ing for a favoured few all the profits of a lucrative trade or an important craft. In another, the same passion stimulates the people to perpetual changes in the tenure of property-sets aside vested rights-pulls down one branch of industry to build up another-passes laws under pretence of benefiting the poor, but in reality to advance the rich. In each case the result is about the same. The few are enriched at the expense of the many, and by similar means. The demagogue knows that "thrift follows fawning" quite as well as the courtier. Both have at hand the plea of the "public good," and both take occasion to smile at the eager simplicity with which, for the thousandth time, the bait is swallowed. It must, however, be admitted, that the recipient of a royal charter has some advantages over the self-styled champion of "equal rights." The one is likely to enjoy long and securely his ill-gotten gains : the other often discovers, when too late, that his success has been his destruction. "He has but taught bloody instructions, which, being taught, return to plague the inventor." The fate of Licinius, among the first to suffer from the law forbidding the accumulation of large estates, which he had himself procured to be enacted, should teach these modern patriots, that it is vastly easier to raise an evil spirit than to lay it again; and that there is a marvellous difference between being a martyr to one's principles, or rising by them to place and power. How to prevent the evils growing out of these extreme systems of legislation has long been a question. Moses, by Divine direction, prescribed the remission of debts and the reversion of landed estates at certain fixed periods; measures which, though they had doubtless other and higher ends, contributed also to equalize property: but in a manner too violent for any except a temporary and peculiar dispensation. Other lawgivers, such as Solon and Servius Tullius, endowed the rich with privileges, but imposed upon them more than corresponding burdens. The consequence, however, was, that society was broken up into castes more or less hereditary; which, by creating a permanent distinction between rich and poor, obstructed that free and healthy movement of mind, and that cordial cooperation among all classes, so necessary to the utmost improvement of a people. In our country, every thing like hereditary distinction or privilege has been abolished. Property can be perpetuated in no family, except by enterprise and virtue; while there is nothing in the theory, and but little in the practical operation of our laws, to prevent the humblest citizen from reaching the highest eminence of wealth or power. There is here no class of rich or poor. Through |